Telematics units within mobile vehicles provide subscribers with connectivity to a telematics service provider (TSP). The TSP may provide the subscriber with an array of services ranging from emergency call handling and stolen vehicle recovery to diagnostics monitoring and turn-by-turn navigation. Telematics units are often provisioned and activated at a point of sale when a subscriber purchases a telematics-equipped vehicle. Upon activation, the telematics unit can be utilized to provide a subscriber with the telematics services.
Conventionally, telematics units pre-loaded with cellular service information are sent to vehicle assembly plants. The cellular service information may include a MIN (Mobile Identification Number), a MDN (Mobile Directory Number), or other carrier information. The vehicle assembly plant then assembles each vehicle, equipping the vehicle with the telematics unit, and ships the telematics-equipped vehicles to their predetermined destinations, which may be widely dispersed, perhaps even in several different countries.
Because the telematics units are conventionally pre-loaded with cellular service information, a part number based on the destination country or phone number has to be assigned to each telematics unit so that telematics unit is assured of being pre-loaded with cellular service information corresponding to the particular location (e.g., country, etc.) where the host vehicle is to be shipped. Furthermore, the manufacturer of the telematics unit (which may or may not be the same manufacturer as the manufacturer of the vehicle) is required to work with a wireless carrier and manage the programming of phone numbers and other information into each telematics unit. Additionally, errors may occur at the vehicle assembly plant such that a vehicle shipped to one country is mistakenly installed with a telematics unit configured with information for another country.
Thus, it is an object in part to provide a system and method for provisioning a telematics unit with cellular service information without pre-loading the telematics unit with the information during the manufacturing process to reduce manufacturing costs. However, while this is an object underlying certain implementations of the invention, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to systems that solve the problems noted herein. Moreover, the inventors have created the above body of information for the convenience of the reader and expressly disclaim all of the foregoing as prior art; the foregoing is a discussion of problems discovered and/or appreciated by the inventors, and is not an attempt to review or catalog the prior art.